Continuing education. Always reading. Always studying. Always researching. And in the end: still ignorant. There’s just not enough time to get it all in. Too much Jim Thompson. Too much Iceberg Slim. Too much Jesse Stuart. There will never be enough time to wedge all the greats in before we run out of time.

A dear friend just gave me this book as a gift. As famous and crucial as it is, I’ve never read it. Too busy reading Clementine Paddleford and E.B White and a laundry list of other writers. But now I finally get to immerse myself in the great Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin with translation by M.F.K Fisher.

Maybe when I’m finished it’ll be just like the old days at St. Camillus and I’ll stand up and give a book report while Sister Catherine Regina is lashing Jerry Parsons to a chair with a jump rope.